May the 4th Be With You: A Small Post About My Lifelong Star Wars Fandom

     I grew up fairly poor and escaped that life through a wonderful galaxy that existed a long time ago and far, far away.  My earliest recollection of an obsession with Star Wars began with seeing the Return of the Jedi in the theaters, it's one of my earliest memories of anything really.  I recall it being just amazing.  Then years later, I'd walk up to gas stations to read the comic books they stocked.

     Once I got a job I collected the comics, the books, the video games, the toys, and even joined the fan club.  I even still have my Star Wars Insider Official Jedi Knight card and Member number from 1997!   I absorbed everything I could because it was an unbelievably vast and diverse universe.  It was a place for everyone and everything.

"This is probably not the blog post you are looking for..."

     In the years since, I've maintained that full fandom.  Despite my distaste for a lot of the "mistakes" the Prequels made, they still had a lot of great stuff in them.  There's still plenty of material to appreciate in them.  The movies stand as a whole, one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever made.  A huge part of me is extremely excited for the new wave of films on the way.
     On the small screen, I've been a long time fan of The Clone Wars series, and much more recently, the Rebels show is also tremendously well put together.  I hope we get some shows for a little older of an audience, with some slightly darker tones  But for now Rebels is satisfying my urges.

     I've been thoroughly impressed by some of the video games, such as The Force Unleashed, as well as quite disappointed with a few as well, like Star Wars: Obi-Wan, which ruined a game prospect for one of my favorite characters or Sega CD's Rebel Assault- it was just plain awful.  With the future of Disney Infinity holding a massive potential video game gold mines, I am super stoked for this.

     For the books, I'd recommend most any they have available.  And with that thought- I'd also highly suggest anyone that can to get them in audiobook format.  The audio versions are full of sound effects that really enhance the reading/listening experience.  Maul was great, Kenobi was decent, Scoundrels was an amazing heist story, and even the odd zombie story like Death Troopers or Red Harvest was wonderful.  As long as they keep up the good work, I'll keep buying them.  The Expanded Universe, now not really canon, still offered a nice look into the rest of the universe of George Lucas' amazing creation and I would still advise people to give Shadows of the Empire a read.
     In the comics there were, and still are, many great things.  There's so much material that it is kind of hard to really call some up.  A Free Comic Book Day issue featuring Anakin Skywalker called "A Jedi's Weapon" was a tight and well done story.  Darth Maul's fate in Star Wars Tales is worthy reading that is also quite well-handled in The Clone Wars television series.
     The "what if" Star Wars: Infinities series is a tremendous take on what might have been under varying circumstances, like Yoda dying before Luke's training.  Then there's one of my all-time personal favorites- the Tag & Bink issues are required reading for fans because it takes place sort of "between the scenes" of the main films.  The duo of Tag & Bink are essentially two bumbling idiots that stumble their way to victory- incidentally influencing the outcomes of some famous scenes.  Almost as if the Force was working through the two most inept people in the galaxy.
   
     When it comes to the toys, I've collected, literally thousands of action figures.  Many of which I've since donated unopened to a lot of my friends' children- to pass on the joys of Star Wars.  Of course I've kept a bunch for myself.  Most are just ones I've always liked like the various Obi-Wan Kenobi's and my all time favorite- Leia in the Boushh disquise.  I must have like 25 variations of the Boushh toys ranging from the Lego toy to the 12" version with the light up Han in Carbonite.

     With this resurgence of popularity I'll be holding back on much of the collecting.  Not all of it of course, but I'll still be purchasing the video games- most likely ALL of the Disney Infinity 3.0 stuff (while there's been no "official" announcement, everyone already knows), a few toys (obviously the new Obi-Wan's and Boushh's), and pretty much 90% of the audio books.

     I may be posting some better written and more well thought out stuff later on.  I know I've got a decent draft about Obi-Wan, an all-right draft about lightsabers, and roughly 25 partially written Star Wars video game reviews on deck.  So there'll be plenty more to come while we wait for the official new stuff to come.

     If any of you readers are still here, I think any true fan would realize "May the 4th Be With You," clearly followed by the "Revenge of the 5th," isn't really Star Wars Day, which is actually be May 25th.  For reasons long time fans should be able to put together.

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